serial control of Marantz Receiver

[dvanurk]

Hi,

i'm trying to control mij Marantz SR 5500 receiver via the serial plugin. I just don't know how to get started. What are the settings for communicating with this device.

I have got a list of rs232 commands, but how to put these into action with the plugin.

Please let me know

[Promixis]

Do you have a link to the rs 232 protocol?

[dvanurk]

Sorry I don't know what you mean...

I have a serial kabel between my HTPC with girder and my RS 5500 receiver.
The list of remote codes i have downloaded from the marantz website:

http://www.marantz.com/download/e_sr5500_rmt.zip

[Mark F]

What he means is a document that says what the baud rate, number of bits per word, parity, stop bits and handshaking settings should be.

Unfortunately, this information does not appear in the documents you linked nor the on-line user's guide for that receiver.

If you can find out this information, we can help you.

[robertmyhtpc]

I recently was able to call Marantz for the developers guide for there serial control. You may want to call them as well. They emailed it to me in 2 minutes. I would offer you mine, but the command appeare to be very different.

[dvanurk]

could you please send me yours?
I called marantz, but they did not want to send me any document.

[robertmyhtpc]

dvanurk,

Your serial commands in the attachment above are completely different than the ones for my SR7400. I wouldn't bet that the protocol and settings are different as well. If you would like, I can send you my .ini file that was graciously sent to me and my gml file when I get home. I could guess at power on and power off for you. If it works, you can add whatever commands you want to the .gml

In order for the above ini file to work, you would also need to change your serial plug-in. If you have any serial devices functioning properly now however, you will need to reconfigure them as the settings will be changed

[Mark F]

Here is a link (http://www.promixis.com/download.php?ID=589) to the released version of the serial plugin.

[dvanurk]

My brother has a 7400 so I can test the setup on his system. Please send me your ini....

[dvanurk]

Marantz Europe could not help me so I contacted Marantz America: Within 1 hour 3!! people send me this document via E-mail:

http://www.vanurk.info/photos/upload_files/marantz.doc

[Mark F]

I'm busy at work right now so I'll have to do this later. I should be able to put this together tonight or tomorrow morning. If someone else wishes to give it a try, the interface appears to be a 3 wire (TX, RX, GND) so there is no handshaking. The port parameters are 9600,n,8,1.

Each outgoing and incoming message is terminated with 0d(hex).

Data needs to stay as binary.

[robertmyhtpc]

dvanurk,
Do you have the commands list?

[dvanurk]

i believe this is the command list:

http://www.marantz.com/download/e_sr5500_rmt.zip

[Mark F]

I finally started working on this. :(

[Mark F]

This is a first pass at this support file. Let me know if you get events and can send data.

You can either set up a serial command in the tree or use LUA to send data. In the tree, put the string into the "send data" edit field. To turn power on use this string:
PWR:2
To turn power off use this:
PWR:1
To query the power state use this:
PWR:?

From LUA use these lines:


-- turn power on
SRx500.SendCommand("PWR:2")
-- turn power off
SRx500.SendCommand("PWR:1")
-- query power state
SRx500.SendCommand("PWR:?")


If this doesn't work, please download and enable the Logger plugin and paste the relevant parts here.

I included the command and protocol documents in the .zip file.

EDIT: use the attachment in a later post

[dvanurk]

I could not see any zip document,
Dit you forgot to attach the document?

Thank you for the effort

[dvanurk]

Sorry my mistake...
I see the document now...

I wil try this later when i come home

[dvanurk]

i could not get it to work. Unfortunatly..

What is dit was:

i imported the ini in the serial plug-in.
Then i added a command in the tree. The command was to send a command via the serial plugin. The command i put in the input box was: PWR:1 .... etc.

I enabled logging. The logging did not respont also...

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong...
Is their perhaps another way of testing this connection??

[dvanurk]

ALERT: error: attempt to call global `toupper' (a nil value)
ALERT: stack traceback:
ALERT: 1: method `SendCommand' [(none)]
ALERT: 2: main of (none)


This is wat the logger reported later this evening...

I received another E-mail from Marantz America.. I got the same file that was mentioned earlier is this topic. (7400) According to Mr Stoneburner, these are the RC codes an they should be working with the SR5500 as well...

Now I am really confused... :(

[dvanurk]

I tried to doe someting within hypertrm. But the screen stayd completely empty. I believe this means there is no connection/communication at all between my receiver and my htpc... Could this be due to the cable...

Another thing, There is another port (RCA) called RC5. What use is this port? Perhaps this port can be fed with the RC5 data?
Or just wild thinking?

[Rob H]

toupper should be strupper I suspect

[Mark F]

I'm sorry. I made the same mistake on another device file this morning and copied the mistake before fixing it. :(

I've attached another .zip file to this post. The .ini file in this should fix the toupper() problem. As noted by Rob, this should have been strupper().

Is there a PC based tool that Mrantz supplies that should talk to this receiver? If so, this tool would let make sure the cable is not the problem.

EDIT: use the attachment below

[dvanurk]

Is it now logging basicly the same but ther is one difference:
in stead of touper it now says:


MitsDLP


:-?[/code]

[Mark F]

I'm not sure I've been this brain dead for a while. I'm REALLY sorry. :(

[dvanurk]

Don't worry. You are helping me!!

[dvanurk]

i tried the new ini.

No resonse from the marantz..

I tried to send via hypertrm als well, but no response either.
Then i hooked my HTPC to my laptop. The commands that was send via my HTPC were shown om my laptop (hypertrm). So it does send commands but the marantz just doesn't want to listen to the commands...

What the h. am i doing wrong?


:-?

[Mark F]

Since you can use this cable to talk between PCs, it must be a cross-over cable. From looking at the diagram in section 2.2 of the .doc file, the Marantz requires a straight-through cable.

[dvanurk]

OK , then I misunderstood the "manual"

I was thinking that my cable was all rigth because in section 3.1.1. The TxD is connected to the RxD and the Rxd Is connected tot the Txd...

I think I will try to find another cable tomorrow...

[Mark F]

Yeah, it is poor at best. :(

[dvanurk]

IT WORKS , IT REALLY WORKS!!! :D :D :D

[Mark F]

WOO HOO! :o

Drop what you are doing and grab an adult beverage. :)

[dvanurk]

I will eat a large steak...
I don't drink any alcohol.....

[robertmyhtpc]

Eveything Mark F touches works! He is like Donald Trump in Soft Copy!

[guitarzan]

I would love to see your module. I just got a SR 5500 and am trying to do the same thing.
Thanx!

[dvanurk]

just download the plug-in form earlier replies in this topic.
The codes are located in this link:

http://www.marantz.com/download/e_sr5500_rmt.zip

Just install the plugin and type the required codes in the text value box.

This should do the trick.

Please e sure to use the proper cable, It has to be a straight cable and not a cross-over cable.

Dirk

[guitarzan]

I got it working finally. Thank you for the help. :D

[shophopper]

Hmm, I don't see anything happen to my Marantz SR5600 when I use HyperTerminal. My settings are:
- 9600 bits per second
- 8 bits
- no parity
- 1 stopbit
- flow control: none (I also tried 'hardware')

I rewired my serial cable several times. The following wiring scheme had no result:
2 (Tx) <--> 2 (Tx)
3 (Rx) <--> 3 (Rx)
5 (Gnd) <--> 5 (Gnd)
Neither did the following:
2 (Tx) <--> 3 (Rx)
3 (Rx) <--> 2 (Tx)
5 (Gnd) <--> 5 (Gnd)
And neither did a fully wired cable with all pins connected (Rx connected to Tx etcetera).

With all of these wring schemes I used the following keyboard entry, where <enter> represents hitting the Enter key on the keyboard (which is #0D HEX).
@PWR:0<enter>
@PWR:2<enter>
@PWR:?<enter>
PWR:0<enter>
PWR:2<enter>
PWR:?<enter>
SRC:2<enter>
SRC:?<enter>
@SRC:2<enter>
@SRC:?<enter>

I used 2 different computers for most of the setups, but not a single command gave any result on the SR5600 - it simply ignores all input and doesn't give me any feedback via HyperTerminal :(. To check my wiring and the serial ports I connected the two computers via the serial ports (Rx connected to Tx). I managed to get communication started, so I must have been using the correct serial ports (COM1 on both computers).

Am I missing somethig here? Do I need to enter some initialization code on HyperTerminal? :-?

[robertmyhtpc]

I have made the newer Marantz receivers work every time
cable, You need tx to rx back and forth. trust me, bite the bullet and go to radio shack and buy the cable for 15 bucks!

9600 baud rate
no parity
stop bit 1
handshaking none
8 bit

in the girder serial plug in for the command, put in only @ (then the command you want)
for the enter or carriage return, go to the settings in the transmitt settings and the top box type in odh.

apply
your done!

I can send you a working gml file in a couple of days if you would like.

[shophopper]

Yesterday I got hold of a new cable, which I connected to yet another pc. The SR5600 still shows no sign of any communication. Is there anyone out there who can confirm that the Marantz SR5600 (not a similar model) can be controlled with the control codes for the Marantz SRx500 models?

I haven't bought Girder yet. Before I buy the software I would like to see the amplifier respond to commands, because that would be the very reason for me to buy Girder. :)

[Rob H]

Do you have the standby mode set to Economy by any chance? It seems that the RS232 port is disabled with that setting.

[shophopper]

Stand-by mode is set to normal. Changing it to economy and than resetting it back to normal didn't make any difference. :(

[shophopper]

Weird, very weird. I got back to straight wiring:
2 (Tx) <--> 2 (Tx)
3 (Rx) <--> 3 (Rx)
5 (Gnd) <--> 5 (Gnd)
and this time commands like
@PWR:0<enter>
worked flawlessly via HyperTerminal :confused:. I couldn't find any differences with my prior attempts. Anyhow, problem solved. The SR5600 does indeed behave just like the SR5500, SR7500 and similar models.

[Rob H]

Cool, glad you have got it going.

[cthulhu666]

I found this thread, while googling for info about the possibility of controlling the Marantz SR5600 from a HTPC via the RS232 port. I'm really happy to hear, that it is possible.

I wonder why Marantz states on their website, that the RS232 port only can be used for software upgrade and NOT RS232 control, when it obviously is working?!?

I emailed Marantz before I found this thread and got a reply saying, that control only works with dedicated plug-ins from either AMEX og Crestron. If you guys have gotten response from the SR5600 via the HyperTerminal program, this is obviously not true.

Since I will be using Linux (w/ MythTV) for my HTPC, Girder and similar programs are not an option for me. Fortunately I'm a programmer, so I can write my own software for communicating with the receiver.

So thank for posting your results, proving it can be done.

[Nakken]

I'm not sure I've been this brain dead for a while. I'm REALLY sorry. :(

Hi!
I`ve just bought a Marantz sr5500 reciver and it seems like you have made a way to controll these through serial. I was just wondering how to use the .ini file you posted. Where should i place this file to be able to use the lua comands posted?

Best Regards
Eirik Nakken

[Mark F]

You have to get the serial plugin (for Grider V3.x) and load the "device" file (the .ini) into that plugin. Set the COMx port in th edevice settings for the new device and it should work.

The serial plugin comes with a document which explains the usage and settings.

Good luck. :)